At the 2025 annual Georgia Association for Behavior Analysis (GABA) conference, a powerful theme emerged: the future of behavior analysis depends not only on the strength of our science but on how effectively we share and apply it across disciplines. Dr. Dorothea Lerman’s session on Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Science and Its Relevance to Behavior Analysis highlighted a challenge familiar to many practitioners—translating evidence-based behavioral principles into the realities of diverse professional environments through intentional collaboration and adaptation.
Dissemination & Implementation (D&I) Science, originally conceptualized by Everett Rogers, provides a framework for actively promoting, teaching, and embedding evidence-based practices into systems and cultures beyond the behavior-analytic community. It emphasizes that evidence alone doesn’t change behavior—reinforcement, collaboration, and contextual fit do.
At its core, Safety-Care by QBS embodies the principles of D&I Science. Safety-Care is more than just a training model—it’s a vehicle for disseminating behavior analysis in a way that is accessible, adaptable, and sustainable across disciplines.
While D&I Science calls for balancing fidelity to evidence-based practices with contextual realities, Safety-Care operationalizes this balance every day. The program equips organizations—schools, hospitals, residential facilities, and more—with behaviorally sound, practically feasible tools for crisis prevention and de-escalation. The goal isn’t to teach behavior analysis, but to embed its principles within the fabric of everyday professional practice.
A key takeaway from the GABA presentation was the importance of learning about the partner profession, such as its culture, values, and constraints, before proposing solutions. Safety-Care has long modeled this collaborative spirit.
Each training is designed to meet professionals where they are, adapting methods to fit their environment while maintaining behavioral integrity. For example:
By doing so, Safety-Care aligns with D&I’s emphasis on feasibility, acceptability, and sustainability and prioritizing what will work consistently in real-world conditions.
The GABA session emphasized that passive awareness doesn’t change practice; change occurs when organizations are supported by systems that reinforce new behaviors. Safety-Care’s implementation model addresses this directly:
One of the central insights from D&I Science is that adaptation does not mean dilution. Rather, effective dissemination requires flexibility without sacrificing core principles. Safety-Care reflects this philosophy by translating behavior analysis into clear, teachable, and contextually relevant practices and ensuring that staff across disciplines can implement them confidently.
This approach has allowed Safety-Care to become a bridge between the science of behavior and the everyday realities of human service, education, and healthcare work.
The field of behavior analysis has always been about improving the human condition through evidence-based change. Safety-Care extends that mission by making behavioral principles understandable, usable, and sustainable across professions and helping ensure that people supported in diverse settings benefit from behavioral science, even when a BCBA isn’t in the room.
As D&I Science reminds us, the future of behavior analysis depends on our ability to adapt, collaborate, and maintain a focus on long-term, contextual impact. Safety-Care by QBS is proud to stand at the forefront of that movement—translating behavioral science into compassionate, practical, and effective crisis prevention practices that make a measurable difference in people’s lives.
Lerman, D. (2025, October 17-18). Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Science and Its Relevance to Behavior Analysis [Symposium]. Georgia Association for Behavior Analysis Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.